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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24265660">Intoxicated Memoirs</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/normalormynormal/pseuds/normalormynormal'>normalormynormal</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Gentlemen (2019)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>And The Toddlers (sort of), Angst, Canon-Typical Profanity, Domestic, I can't think of any other tags that need to be tagged..., I gave Coach a past, I mean he would have had to to become the Coach yanno?, It's super cute but damn Coach has seen some shit to still be the sweetest guy out here, M/M, Mentions of canon-typical violence, So here go, they drink alcohol</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 23:20:20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,033</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24265660</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/normalormynormal/pseuds/normalormynormal</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>One blissful night of alone time and booze, Ray asks Coach what made him become the coach and how he learnt the skills he has.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Coach/Raymond Smith</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>51</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Intoxicated Memoirs</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roguewings/gifts">Roguewings</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Felt like Coach needed an explanation for how such a sweet guy managed to become the feared Coach of the gym with his boys by his side. So here go</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The fire crackled as it burned away in the living room, encompassing the entire room - and further through the house - and the occupants inside. Said occupants were curled up together on one of the dark brown leather couches, legs up and crossed together, toes rubbing gently against shins. The two men were both nursing what were previously generously filled glasses of whisky but were now down to nothing but mere last few sips. </p><p>Despite being nearly finished with their drinks, they had no plans of leaving their bubble anytime soon considering they were both very pleasantly buzzed having already indulged in a previous 4 glasses each. </p><p>Ray and Coach had been saving this whisky for tonight. It was one they had been looking forward to all week, it being their only night with absolutely zero responsibilities and being able to sink into the comfort of one another, the glass and the fire, discussing everything and anything in quiet, tired voices, just so unbelievably content to be in each other’s presence. </p><p>When they had started on their lives, they never could have guessed they would be so lucky to end up with a significant other, let alone a significant other as perfect as they had wound up with. Coach never believed he would find someone that was happy to indulge in his boys and his work and his quirks and yet, suddenly - and unbeknown to them at the time, - his boys managed to introduce Raymond Smith to his life. The only way to describe him was gentlemanly and Coach could never believe he was so lucky after all the strings of bad dotted and twisted thought his life. </p><p>Ray felt exactly the same way. Due to his line of work, his outlook on significant other and “soulmates” was rather bleak. When Coach had stepped into that bar and immediately made his regret known about what The Toddlers did, and that he knew it was on him to make up for their actions because they are just kids - and in retrospect, Ray does now know how just how much those boys are just kids, Coach’s kids - and his respect for the man was earned just like that. </p><p>He knew that Coach did not like what he did whatsoever, and, at the time, he had wanted to get out of it as quick as possible. But Coach knew why he did it. Michael and Rosalind Pearson, Bunny, Dave and everyone else he worked with was his family. </p><p>It was a big leap, entering this relationship, not only for Coach but his boy’s welfare as well. He didn’t mind so much about himself but he refused to put his boys in the line of direct danger that could be avoided. They had already been through too much and he was their guardian, their protector. Even if he was trying them to protect themselves efficiently, he would always put them first. </p><p>Ray cleared his throat and took a breathe to start a new topic as their last one faded out. Coach could already tell it was going to be a heavy one. </p><p>“When I first met you, when all that shit with the farm was going down, you said something that makes me wonder to this day… You told me that the boys had already had really shitty lives and you were trying to put them on the right path, so you took the blame. Why… did you become the coach? What made you want to help these boys? Because, and I say this with the utmost amount of love, but you are a very gentle man but you definitely know how to handle yourself and hold your own intellectually and physically but that must mean… Something got you to that point…” Ray trailed off, looking towards his partner, words low and gravelly but warm and curious. </p><p>It made Coach give a gentle, half-hearted laugh. “Yeah, you’d be about as right as you always are, love. It wasn’t all sunshine and fucken rainbows in my life. Up until I started as the coach it was pretty dark. It’s only gotten brighter in the time I met you,” Coach gave Ray a smart grin to which Ray just shook his head affectionately and motioned for him to continue. Coach took a deep breath. </p><p>“It started as most lives in our area of… volatile expertise does. M’ father wasn’t exactly golden and ma was a bit of a pushover. Nasty household, more bruised skin than none. Then one day, he goes too hard, pushes too far…” Coach shakes his head gently and turns his unwavering gaze to the fire, Ray just watched him. “Next thing I know, mum’s dead and dad’s turning everything on me. I was a coward as a kid. Never could stand up to him, “he relents a small shrug, “Maybe that’s why she died. I dunno, I’ll never know. But what I do know is I was sick of him, sick of hiding all the time. I remember the day more than I want, get this, he is so far down the alley of drunk when I get home one night that he grabs me by the hair as I’m walkin’ by, there I go straight down on the ground. And he just starts punching, yanno?”</p><p>Coach sniff, tearing his glance away from the fire to flick to Ray, taking in the other man watching him before quickly turning back to the fire, unable to look his lover in the eye. </p><p>“Broken nose, fractured skull, broken ribs, helluva lot more than that too but that’s the basics of it.  By this time, we manage to scrabble on the floor, I got a couple good hits in but nothing enough to get this fucken lug of a shit cunt off of me, mind you, he hasn’t said a fucken word since I had even walked through the door. No motive, no nothing. Anyway, we roll closer to the kitchen and - I dunno how I did - but I remembered there was this knife above us on the bench that I had used earlier that day,” Coach gestures his hadn’t above him, hand tilted to the side, displaying where the knife was on the bench, “And I finally managed to reach up, he gets one more solid punch to my face and it shocks my whole body down, my arm with it, and the knife manages to bury itself in the back of his head. Gone. Dead.” </p><p>“Fuck…” Ray breathes out a sigh, leaning his head on the whisky glass in his hand which was propped up against the couch. His free hand goes out to latch onto the salt-and-pepper haired man’s hand, rubbing his thumb in comforting circles lightly. “You don’t have to keep going if you don’t want to, love… It’s okay.”</p><p>Coach gives him a soft smile of appreciation, “Nah, babe. I’m good now, just… haven’t gone over this in a very long time.”</p><p>“Anyway, I push him off, run around grab the things I need and take off. Mate of mine at the time, older guy, name was Trevor and he had a uh… business in the client’s revenge seeking and lesson teaching aspects of dismantling the human anatomy and psyche but he also knew how to fix up a body too. So, I went to him and he patched me up and then I continued to stay with him and I learned that he… He knew a thing or two about combat and the like. Stayed with hims for years and years, helped him on jobs and the like. He taught me just about everything I knew, I now know more ways to detain and violently dehumanise a body than I ever wanted to know, but its definitely in my resume now.” </p><p>Ray makes a face at this as a moment of clarity appears, “The pig…” he says in horror. </p><p>Coach grimaces, “Yeah… The pig. So, yeah everything I knew, except for the couple pieces here and there that I taught myself after getting into spots of trouble and had to find my own way out of them,” the older man trailed off with a laugh to which Ray smirked a bit. </p><p>The coach tipped his head and his glass back to finish the last of his drink before placing it on the coffee table next to him, careful to place it directly on the coaster for Ray’s sanity. Ray does the same and gestures for Coach to come towards hims, splaying his legs out to make room for his partner between them. Coach crawls in between Ray’s legs, leaning his head and back against the brunette’s chest and holding onto Ray’s hands as they cross over his own chest. </p><p>“You do manage to find yourself in odd situations, don’t you?” </p><p>Coach concedes, “Hm, some better than others,” he nudges Ray with his shoulder before continuing, “Anyway, he got into a spot of trouble himself. For a dangerous man in the industry, he was well-respected but that doesn’t mean he didn’t have enemies. On of the guys a client had hired him to work on had some extra buddies that didn’t take too well to their friend being disposed of and well… let’s just say they took care of Trevor in their own ways.”</p><p>“By the time Trevor had managed to make his way home, he’d been half dead. There was blood everywhere and he just looked at me and told me there was nothing that could be done, this was how it was going to go. He died in the house, told me the house was mine and that I could live there and all his resources were belonged to me now,” Ray’s arms tightened around him, “So I did. I got rid of all of his gear form his business and started making the place my own. It was a shitty little house but it was hundred times better than the streets. It’s actually just a coupla’ streets down from the gym. I’ll show it to you one day,” Coach tilted his head to look at Ray at that last part, awaiting a response.</p><p>Ray nodded, “I’d love that.” </p><p>Coach settled back down, snuggling into his lover once more. </p><p>“It was just a few months after that and I met Ernie. He was living on the street, had been for years. He was sick and cold and had nowhere to go, so, like a fucken idjit, I offered him a place and he tells me “Why the fuck would I go with you? You could be some psycho pervert or some shit.” First words he ever says to me, I shit you not,” they both give a hearty chuckle at that, “And I tell him that I’ve been in his position, to stop being an idjit and take the fucken offer ‘cause it’s the best one he’s gonna get ever. ‘Tells me he’s got mates. That’s how he introduces me to the other 4 boys and next thing ya know I’m livin’ in a house as a guardian to five fucken morons who don’t know how to keep themselves out of trouble or how to defend themselves. So I start teaching them.”</p><p>Coach stretches his head again to look up at Ray, “It was actually their idea that I open up the gym to help other kids like them. So I did. Makes me wonder if they ever learned anything though after they raided Mickey’s farm and posted it all over the fucken net. No matter how much I try they’re still the dumbest cunts I know.” </p><p>Ray lets out a chuckle and Coach joins him. </p><p>Ray pulls the other man closer to him, planting a kiss atop his head, “Thank you for telling me. It… actually makes so much more sense now. I feel like I know you a lot more and I was pretty sure I already knew everything there is to know about you,” he laughs.</p><p>Coach turns to kiss hi on the lips, “I wanna be honest with ya, babe. Never had something as strong as this with anyone. Want it to last.” </p><p>Ray grins, “As do I.”</p>
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